Pierre Charron

The true science and study of man is man.

Pierre Charron (1541 – 16 November 1603) was a French philosopher, and a close friend of Michel de Montaigne.

Quotes

De la sagesse · On Wisdom (1601)

• La vraie science et le vrai étude de l'homme c'est l'homme.
  • The proper Science and Subject for Man's Contemplation is Man himself.
  • Book I, Ch. 1. Stanhope's translation, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922) p. 488. Different translation in H. L. Mencken (ed.) A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles ([1942] 1960) p. 739: "The true science and study of man is man."

• All Religions have this in common, that they are an outrage to common sense for they are pieced together out of a variety of elements, some of which seem so unworthy, sordid and at odds with man’s reason, that any strong and vigorous intelligence laughs at them; but others are so noble, illustrious, miraculous, and mysterious that the intellect can make no sense of them and finds them unpalatable. The human intellect is only capable of tackling mediocre subjects: it disdains petty subjects, and is startled by large ones. There is no reason to be surprised if it finds any religion hard to accept at first, for all are deficient in the mediocre and the commonplace, nor that it should require skill to induce belief. For the strong intellect laughs at religion, while the weak and superstitious mind marvels at it but is easily scandalized by it.
  • Book II, Ch. 5, p. 345. Reported in Michael Hunter and David Wootton (eds.) Atheism from the Reformation to the Enlightenment‎ (1992) p. 99

Treasury of Thought (1881)

Quotes reported in Maturin M. Ballou's Treasury of Thought, 7th ed. (1881)

• Those who have nothing else to recommend them to the respect of others but only their blood, cry it up at a great rate, and have their mouths perpetually full of it. They swell and vapor, and you are sure to hear of their families and relations every third word.
  • p. 22 (Ancestry)

• Great towns are but a large sort of prison to the soul, like cages to birds, or pounds to beasts.
  • p. 82 (Cities)

• The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one's self more cunning than others.
  • p. 86 (Conceit)

• Despair is like forward children, who, when you take away one of their playthings, throw the rest into the fire for madness. It grows angry with itself, turns its own executioner, and revenges its misfortunes on its own head.
  • p. 123 (Despair)

• Pleasure and pain, though directly opposite, are yet so contrived by nature as to be constant companions; and it is a fact that the same motions and muscles of the face are employed both in laughing and crying.
  • p. 161 (Extremes)

• He who receives a good turn should never forget it; he who does one should never remember it.
  • p. 213 (Gratitude)

• Wise men mingle mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget or overcome them; but to resort to intoxication for the ease of one's mind is to cure melancholy by madness.
  • p. 268 (Intemperance)

• To owe an obligation to a worthy friend is a happiness, and can be no disparagement.
  • p. 367 (Obligation)

• Riches should be admitted into our houses, but not into our hearts; we may take them into our possession, but not into our affections.
  • p. 453 (Riches)

• It is certainly much easier wholly to decline a passion than to keep it within just bounds and measures; and that which few can moderate almost anybody may prevent.
  • p. 463 (Self-denial)

• We ought not to judge of men's merits by their qualifications, but by the use they make of them.
  • p. 556 (Wisdom)

Quotes about Charron

• His standpoint is invariably that of a human philosopher. The sceptic spirit which pervades the whole book allows it to be summed up in a very few words: by his own natural light and strength man is incapable of finding principles of religion and morality sufficiently certain; and, being sure of nothing, it is consequently wise to live as conveniently and pleasurably as the common usage of the people among whom one lives allows. No attempt is made anywhere in the body of the book to conceal the baldness of this doctrine.
  • The Catholic Encyclopedia, on Charron's De la sagesse (1601).

• "All men," said a wise and good priest, "maintain that they hold and believe their religion (and all use the same jargon), not of man, nor of any creature, but of God. But to speak truly, without pretence or flattery, none of them do so; whatever they may say, religions are taught by human hands and means; take, for example, the way in which religions have been received by the world, the way in which they are still received every day by individuals; the nation, the country, the locality gives the religion; we belong to the religion of the place where we are born and brought up; we are baptised or circumcised, we are Christians, Jews, Mohametans before we know that we are men; we do not pick and choose our religion for see how ill the life and conduct agree with the religion, see for what slight and human causes men go against the teaching of their religion."—Charron, De la Sagesse.—It seems clear that the honest creed of the holy theologian of Condom would not have differed greatly from that of the Savoyard priest.
  • Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, Book V The Creed of the Savoyard Priest Foxley translation

External links

• Of Wisdom; in three books as translated by George Stanhope (1707)
• Profile in the Catholic Encyclopedia